Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1887-09-18
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD IN.
VESTIGATlON.

We3t, with reference 20 the WOrk Vi INC
Commission sent out to investigate the
Pacific railroads. The general subject
placed before the Commission is one OF
many entanglements and complica-
lions, the result of twenty-five years
of legislation by Congress favorable to
the railroads. 1t is the fewest men who
understand to-day the exact status OF
the subsidized roads toward the Govern.
ment. 1t is a many.sided question and
the whole situation is replete with IN.
barrassments. The story is too long to
be told in newspaper article of ordinary
length. The Thurman Act has proven
q failnre-failing to meet even the In
terest annually due the Government.
The principal and interest of the Gov.
ernment's obligation has become colossal
amounting to over one hundred million.
Then there is a first mortgage on the
roads amounting to sixty million more.
What ae you going to do about it?
Make EN- pay, says Mr.. Somebody.
But how? That is the question.
Under the provisions of the Thurman
law one.fourth of the net earnings Of
the roads is turned over regularly to the
Government, that is if we get a fair set
Element, and we have a Railroad Com.
missioner in the person Of General
Joseph E. johnson, who is provided
with expert bookkeepers and charged
with the duty of seeing that we get a
fair settlement.
And just here it is pertinent to remark
that Governor Stanford, in the late in
vestigation, was not SO far out of the
way as some people have imagined and
asserted. He took the position that the
Government having gotten it's %one.fourth
of the earnings it was none of the Gov
ernment's business what the railroad
people did with their three.fourths.
There is a good deal of sense in that too.
But regarding the Commission and the
debt, Congress had up a bill last Winter
to extend the payment Of the debt one
hundred years, the roads being allowed
to refund the first mortgage bonds at a
lower rate of interest in the meantime.
Some members of Congress asserted that
the roads were able to pay in a shorter
time; others said they were not. Hence
the Commission, which was raised to in
vestigate the whole subject, but primar.
lily to inquire into the resources of the
roads and their ability to pay. This was
the main thing in view and the main
thing wanted by Congress. Incidentally
the Commission was given power to see
whether any part of the earnings had
been squandered in c%orrupting elections
and Legislatures. The latter branch of
the inquiry seems to have monopolized
the attention of the Commission to the
exclusion of everything else. We hest.
tate not to say that the Commission mis-
took, in the main, the real scope of the
inquiry. 1t gave practically no atten.
tion whatever to the resources of the
roads, present or prospective, or their
ability to meet the Governments claim
in one year or one thousand. 1t went
after the little points instead of the big
ones, and Congress, when it meets, will
be no better off in the way of information
than it was before this Commission was
raised and sent out at an expense of
one hundred thousand dollars to the
Government. In Colorado it investi.
gated Senator Teller's election and en-.
deavored to ascertain how much the
Union Pacific contributed to the Repub-
lican campaign fund. In California it did
pretty much the same thing, and nothing
else. Why the last Senatorial canvass
in Nevada was overlooked is not ap.
parent. There were bonanzas of rotten.
ness and corruption up here last Fall. We
are not finding fault with the Commits.
sion for going into these things, which
were proper to be brought out, of course,
but we do maintain that in the proper
discharge of its duties it should have
gone into other things as we'll. So far
as our reading goes the Commission
never once touched the essence of the
subject which called it into being
namely. the resources Of the Pacific rail.
roads and their ability to pay the great
debt due the Government. The investi.
cation, as conducted, was simply puerile,
as affecting the matters Congress de.
sired to know about. 1t used a political
rather than a business probe.